For the past year or so, the term peer-to-peer (P2P) has become synonymous with Napster, the controversial file-sharing program created by a 20-year-old software whiz called Shawn Fanning and now the subject of numerous lawsuits. Napster, much like its close cousin, Gnutella, allows users to transfer music files among themselves, circumventing many legal controls over copyright and creating a massive network of music libraries scattered about the Internet. Napster is a clever twist on a time-worn architecture dating back to the early days of the Internet. Now, a number of start-up firms are hoping to harness the same technology in the corporate world, promising to use the computing architecture to empower workers, unleash their creativity and solve communication problems.
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